Transcript: Episode #237: Sketching Out the Journey
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Host 0:00
So before we get into today's episode, I want to tell you about the Burmese made handicrafts that are nonprofit sources from vulnerable artists and communities across Myanmar. These lovely crafts bring the life and color of Myanmar to the world. More importantly, their purchase assist the artists and their families. While also going on to support our ongoing humanitarian and media missions. Please take a moment to visit our shop at a local crafts.com That's a lokacrafts.com.
Dragos Badita 2:02
Thanks for inviting me, my name is Dr. Bucha. Ditto. I'm more visual artists from Romania. And yeah, I traveled in Myanmar a couple of years ago, just before the pandemic.
Host 2:16
Yeah, thanks for coming on and have a few things to talk about and learn from your your journeys there. And some of the perspectives and insights you had from your experiences. So to give some background to our audience, you you're a meditator, you've meditated in, in different Theravada traditions such as a poke, and at Geneva and Arjun Shah. And so you came to me and more partly to want to learn more about the Buddha's life and meditation teachers there. But you're also an artist. And so as you were there for the more meditative aspect, you were also in perhaps classic style of the the old seafarers and voyagers that used to go before current technology, you would create sketches of daily life happening around you. And so talk a bit about these two backgrounds, about your background as a meditator and your background as an artist and how these came together and your trip to Myanmar.
Dragos Badita 3:10
Yeah, so as a meditator, I started maybe 15 years ago to meditate. Gradually, in the beginning, it was less intense and, but then I started going, in retreats. And in Romania, there have been some very good retreats in agential tradition with teachers from all invited from Great Britain. And it was very important experience for me. And I learned a lot from that. And I really dreamed of going someday to see how how Buddhism and meditation teachings are at their home in their home. And, yeah, and my plan was like to travel maybe for two or three months in both Thailand and Myanmar. And the idea was to make one month retreat in one of these countries, and then one month just traveling to different different cities and different, more like a cultural trip that maybe not so much nature, but I just want like nature a lot. Then I chose India and Myanmar for going in a retreat because I had some problem with a visa in Thailand. I just couldn't obtain or only for two weeks, and then another two weeks, but I didn't want to fragment the time. And yeah, I researched a lot where where should I go what monastery in Myanmar to go and I wanted to try a bit. I felt that I needed a bit more concentration and in my practice, and I read a bit about the whole tradition and it kind of resonated with me, the way it it's, it's kind of quite baby stage oriented in the very clear method maybe. And also they had this kind of way of teaching. Gradually you have to relearn learn concentration first and then go to insight. Yeah, and I can tell a bit more about experience with monastery but with the drawing and art artistic part. Usually when I travel, I don't have so much time to make some works to, to draw, but when it's when I went in Thailand, the Myanmar I really wanted to focus on this a lot, because I tend to take my time to add to my sketches and to, because I think it's a very good way of sitting more time getting more time in one place, and kind of really soak into the experience and the people and really paying attention to what's happening. Because if you have to draw something, you really have to be very attentive, and in anyways, also, this is kind of for meditative practice, to draw and even for people, for people that are not artists, I think is very useful to just sit down and really look at something. And it was also very nice way, or nice way to interact with people too. Because people are seeing that I'm drawing them maybe some temple and gods were asking me, and I showed them other drawings, and it was a nice way to interact, to meet people. And yeah, and in the end, I had quite maybe I had to talk to 100 drawings from this trip and in different cities, even monasteries. In the retreat, I try not to draw so much. I only in the last two days, I did some drawings, but and yeah, and now when I look back at them, I really remember very clearly the places and the stories behind them more, much more, more so than if I take pictures, photos, or it's, it's a very nice way to just keep keep the memories and reconnect with the place.
Host 7:27
Yeah, that was what I was gonna ask in what ways do you find that the experience of of choosing to draw something and then drawing it and then coming back and look at that later, in what ways is that different from a photograph?
Dragos Badita 7:41
First of all, because it takes time to draw, you know, and you really have to concentrate and pay a lot of attention, and to really be present in that moment, because you can snap a photo and just forget about it. But if the drawing can just have to be look at details and see much more, many more things than you would otherwise. And that sticks with you, it sticks in your memory. And it's, it's, it's a way of looking maybe more objectively, like, you're just trying to draw what you see. And to and then you look after interesting things like scenes with people that you find inspiring, or some element of architecture or, or an old sculpture that is heartbroken or maybe since from daily life.
Host 8:42
How long does it take you on average to complete a sketch?
Dragos Badita 8:45
Oh, it was quite fast, actually, maybe five minutes? 10 minutes? Depends on it depends on how detailed it is maybe 20 minutes if it's much more complicated, but usually, I mean, we should if I if I drew people, I had to be fast because they are moving a lot. People don't sell. And yeah, now I wanted to publish this book too, to make a book out of destroys. Hope. Hopefully we'll manage to do so.
Host 9:20
Right? And did you have experiences where you were great. You were choosing to sketch something and you saw a scene or a person or a physical object and you thought, Okay, I'll go and sketch this. And then as you're sketching it, you actually you you realize something that you didn't realize when you started out sketching it that some detail or some some feature that you realize that what you thought you saw first was not what was actually there. There was actually something deeper there. That the process of sketching and looking and sketching and looking brought out in ways that just the initial glance didn't.
Dragos Badita 9:55
Yeah, definitely. I mean, it's happens. Maybe it's Sometimes we just small things you just noticed, maybe some person has a strange posture, or gives a hand in some interesting way that you didn't notice before. Or just just noticing many, many details like, that is sculpture, mostly in Thailand, but also Myanmar with very detailed, like ornamentations. And if you actually try to do them, it's very complicated, it's very intricate, and very well done, you know, it's, but if you just take a glance, it's not just a sculpture, you know, but, and also the templates is there. So, the structure is so complex, and every, every portion of it has some meaning and someone, you know, put to put a lot of thought in in considering that part. And, you know, start noticing many things like that.
Host 10:58
When in terms of the, the technique and the detail that that you learn to be able to sketch is there a certain name of of the type of sketch you're doing? Or influences? Or where did you learn how to do these kinds of sketches?
Dragos Badita 11:14
Oh, well, I mean, I did University of Arts, and we did a lot of studies after model or after different subjects, and you just exercise a lot of exercise and just kind of sketch is a bit more free. It's like pro key cookies. And it's more spontaneous, maybe than just normal study. But, and I had some pink kind of ink pen that it's really, it looks a bit like a brush, you know, and it has this interesting line like Sr, sinuous line. And it's nice to play with it, too. I would suggest that with some line is thicker than other, and you can suggest that we do with that. But it's quite spontaneous. Actually. It's quite fresh, you know?
Host 12:10
Right, yeah, did you I wonder how much of an awareness you had about the the old days of travel, I referenced this at the beginning of the talk, and especially when you think of some of the SCI fairy nations that would go and explore the new world, especially the European countries, they would always have sketch artists that would be sketching the people and the botany and the animals and landscape and everything else. And that would come back and inform the the world that they came from a world that was unknown, that these were the first glimpses of it. And they all came through these kind of sketch work. This was this was a medium and profession that really defined that area that we don't see so much anymore. In the sketches you do, to what degree were you aware of the history of, of how these what these sketch artists would do when they would travel to new parts of the world? And in what ways did Did you see the the work that you were doing in some kind of line of this tradition?
Dragos Badita 13:09
Yeah, that's interesting. I mean, I know this tradition, and I, yeah, but I actually didn't think about that very consciously about being kind of in line with that, it's, I thought a bit more like a personal project that was not necessarily kind of that at that point, I didn't think of it as like a documentary, documentary value, or kind of documenting the culture I was encountering. But now when I look back at it, it is you know, I mean, some of them are of some more value. Like that. It's, it's connected. Yeah. And yeah. But now, I think, yeah, maybe it's not. I don't know what to say. It's, it's like, I think compared to maybe other mediums, like photography and documentary, they have, you can say that it's more objective to, to make a video documentary than I could personally view but on the other hand, like a personal vision has more, maybe more. You can go in places where maybe it's not so easy to make photographs, you know, like monastery you can have like a more patient look, you know, like, sit more and, and stay more in one place and just just let the place inspire you more than maybe just throw videos vido documentation, you know, the Witch needs equipment that was difficult to set up. So yeah, I think it has value in that way, like documentary value, yeah. And
Host 15:05
spending your time in monasteries. And it's a really interesting point that the monastery life has a slower flow, more or less distractions, or at least it should and some Myanmar monasteries these days, that's certainly not not the case. They can be quite active, socially engaged places, but the types of meditation and remote monasteries that you were going to they certainly had a slower pace of life and less distractions and more digesting and processing what you were doing as you were doing it. And so it's very interesting that the, the process of sketching and the reflection and the mindfulness of, of of the slow process of recording some feature of life around you also kind of mirrored and supported the protocol and the rhythms of life at that monastery to begin with. Thinking back to some of the sketches that you made at Burmese monasteries or pagodas or other other Buddhist sites when you were in that kind of reflective and meditative frame of mind, which particular sketches and Steens stand out and in what you were able to record from those times.
Dragos Badita 16:12
So in Myanmar, I I spent a couple of days in Yangon, actually and and then the rest of the time like the three weeks I went was at the monastery in Polk Toya and I did in the last three days I did some some drawings there and I actually tried to be a bit representative of my experience there like to draw each kind of place I was spending most of my time in the room I was I was living in and you because it was very interesting room like everything was by the food even the bed just old. And there's this kind of drawing with the path the whole path that was teach there like the meditative path and was on the wall on the door and is it was interesting frame like you have all the all everything in front of you and you just have to sit in that room. And maybe though, monks cooties when they were they were living a bit from the meditation hall and there are some little details that stand out to me like the mosquito nets you know the they have limitations for each age method have a cushion and reserved place and with mosquito net was really like a cocoon you have some privacy even though it was a really big meditation hall and sometimes quite noisy noisy some Sundays. But you have this personal space and you felt secluded just before because you had this net be around you actually did a painting with widows inspired by those mosquito nets there's also many dogs that were living at the monastery was she and you could hear them at night like howling far away like around the the forest around the monastery I drew the dogs to the slippers in the morning where the when the monks were going to eat because it was really big monastery was maybe around 100 monks was were living there and some some laypeople to maybe 20 I'm not sure that we're doing the retreat and you couldn't know how many monks was there only when everyone came to it. And you could see the slippers just all around the kitchen the refectory place and it was really interesting view and some of Hmong sitting with the bowls at the table in the kitchen. It's it's it's visually interesting that they have to eat only from one bowl that's all the food in it's kind of almost like well like burlap Brown, bronze Bell and yeah, things like that. And in the city maybe I really enjoyed the other around the shadow fella on pagoda. It was a really lively place it was like also, obviously a religious and very important pilgrimage site but there's a lot of life normal life cut happening happening around like People were eating or talking or around the pagoda in the was were because he everything was really full of life, the place and people are praying, some are meditating, some are sleeping, some are taking photographs, you know?
Host 20:25
Yeah, this was something I noticed as well, looking at your sketches, especially the one I mean, the ones that really called me of course, were the ones you did in Myanmar just because that's the environment I'm I'm so accustomed to, especially the sketches that you did, I was really intrigued by those. And I was intrigued by just the kind of normal rhythms and flows of life and things that you see and things that happen that you were able to capture into a frame. And in many times I, I had this feeling that some of the things that are happening in the periphery are on the side of that daily life and Myanmar, you made the centerpiece. So for example, the the sandals that are around the trees, the people step out of when they go to the demo halls, this is something that you might see in the periphery of a picture, you might see a picture of people or have a pagoda or scenery and then in the background, you just kind of happen to notice these sandals sitting there. And you made that the focus of what you're doing. So you you're in some ways, the things that you're focusing on are unusual or, or the features that are not usually standing out and you make them stand out by your focus on them. These include, you know, sandals by the tree, you talked about that you talked about the monk eating from his bowl alone, that also caught me just a monk engrossed and focused on the act of eating. And another one that caught my attention was the nuns that are waiting for the bus, very nondescript pictures, nothing really unusual or started lean or, or, or eye catching this happening, just really a feature of daily life, none just sitting on the corner waiting for a bus to arrive, you capture that and also watch Reddit gone, you mentioned you, you did sketches there. But I think what one might think of going to, you know, one of the most holy and famous religious sites in the world that you would get captured kind of the gargantuan and magnificent and spectacular parts of the pagoda, that everyone captures when they go whether it's video or, or, or photograph or artwork, or whatever. But instead you capture scenes, again, that are kind of off to the side, you know, a family that is sitting there enjoying their meal, or having their conversation or a month that's resting or sometimes even the way you're framing the sketches. You're not even seeing the whole scene or the background or the context or the whole figure, you're just seeing parts of parts of a couple of different things juxtaposed together. So was that also intentional in terms of what when you were looking at and thinking about what do I want to make a sketch of of all these things happening in life? And before me, I'm going to choose to focus on these aspects and not those so as you during that decision making process are, are you more focused on those things in the peripheries of life, rather than the big, more obvious, magnificent parts of whatever's in front of you that most people might be more drawn to and making the centerpiece of their images? Yeah,
Dragos Badita 23:31
definitely, I think. I think there's a lot of meaning. And you can read a lot in details like this. And for example, with the sandals, it's also it's this kind of respect that in Myanmar, everyone takes off the shoes and takes off sandals when they go inside my meditation hall, for example. And you can see a sense of community that happens in that kind of place where everyone is kind of together and it's a bit symbolized, like with the sandals, going together, and each I don't know how they recognize because all of them will look the same. How they knew which one is which. And yeah, I mean, I think this kind of details make them is are the most interesting two, among the most suggestive to see and maybe sometimes the relationship between these kind of grand grandiose or architecture and with mythological. I had one with elephant like sculpture, the giant elephant and it was monk sleeping with a fan near on its foot. Or yeah, I think he's, you can imagine a lot of background of these kinds of stories. Like how did how did that moment came to be? You know, what, what is the story behind it? What If you can suggest many things. And yeah, actually, I wish I could catch many more this, this kind of scenes, but it's difficult, you know, because it's very, sometimes it happens very fast. I have one with the meditation pillow, where I was sitting in, in the meditation hall. And at the same time during the evening, it was the light was really almost touching the the pillow sitting it was really interesting kind of seen suggests the passage of time and how much you can can spend in that place. Because you can, the light keeps keeps on coming back and then going away and coming back.
Host 25:51
Yeah, I think the other thing that's interesting about capturing the familiar instead of the spectacular is that when people are are lit when when different people are looking at your art, whether or not they have an experience in that place. They're drawn to more the specific nature of, of the feeling of something on the outskirts. And so what I'm thinking of, for example, is like I don't know how many scenes I've seen in traffic on pagoda, you know how many videos how many pictures, how many different artworks, and they all start to kind of run a bit similar in terms of the magnificent structure that's being painted, you think about like the Eiffel Tower, or the Taj Mahal or the Golden Gate Bridge, if you physically bend any of these monuments, any of these famous places around the world, and then you see a picture of them, the pictures all kind of start to run together, they all they all are, are showing different parts of this magnificent obvious structure in front of you. But instead of showing the obvious scene and shredding on everyone sees if you're able to focus on some small aspect, which is not an unknown it on the contrary, it could be I mean, that's certainly one way you can go about it is to find, you know, I want to find the view of shredded gone that no one's ever really seen before and that people are going to look at and say, Oh, that's shredded, gone, I had no idea. That's certainly one way to go about it. That's not the way you do it. Another way to go about it, which is how I see your sketches going is that you're recording something around shredding gone. That's so obvious and so familiar and so commonplace, that you almost stop seeing it, you almost stop realizing it's there. Because it's just all around you every moment. As I said, it's the periphery, it's the background, it's the thing you don't notice. And by making that the centerpiece of your picture, that of the sketch, that is where the viewers attention starts to come. And if you've, if you've not been to that place, then it gives you some sense of what it must feel like and capturing some of these quotidian scenes. But when you have been to the place, it immediately takes you there and realize, you know, you see a family sitting around Shwedagon, and just the way you capture their body language and their posture and their facial expression and some of the background scene of shredded gone, you think I've seen that woman a dozen times, or the way you might capture one of those hanging mosquito net nets that hover above a meditator at many, many monasteries there. The way that's captured, it's like, well, wait a second, I've I've seen this kind of this exact mosquito net. I've seen this, you know, at least two dozen different times in my experience at these monasteries. So they really call out to you these familiar quotidian objects they call out to you and familiarize a sense of the known in a way that the more obvious painted and depicted scenes probably don't.
Dragos Badita 28:41
Yeah, and I think it's also because of, you know, the travelers mentality because for me, there are not so familiar scenes, actually, because I'm from a very different culture and even if you live there a long time he get used to it, this seems maybe but to me, it's really interesting detail that haven't seen before, you know, and but, yeah, but you can do that you can train that. To do that, even in normal life. I live here in Romania, I can look with a fresh eye things that are common and some year but become interesting if you really pay attention. And I mean, that's almost like a meditative practice take to try and pay a lot of attention to something. It's, it's, it has, it will become interesting, whatever we'll do, it will become interesting. Just through this continuous attention.
Host 29:44
So you reference being from Romania, and one of the things I want to ask about is the current crisis that Myanmar is going through, and I know for me when the crisis started, and suddenly there was this terrible military dictatorship that was oppressing overturning In a democratic and free society are somewhat democratic and somewhat free society, as in the case of Myanmar, that it was kind of unprecedented for me and knowing where do I fit into this? How do I respond? What do I do in this kind of context, coming from an American society, which doesn't necessarily have that history of, of dictators and of widespread widespread oppression, at least in my lifetime, and the lifetime of those around me. In Romania, of course, you had Cesco. And You You You did have a dictator that was there. I think that might have been a little bit before your time, but probably not before the time of the older generations and the stories that you heard and the growing out of the Cold War and the dictator environment into being more of a free society. So as you were following the news, the terrible news that was coming out of Myanmar and the oppression that was coming back, I didn't have any context for this, I didn't have any understanding for what this must feel like and, and how it is to live like this. But as you were following the news, did you feel that you had any context or parallels or comparisons to what you the stories you had heard before about what your own country recently emerged from?
Dragos Badita 31:13
Yeah, actually, I was foreign born just just before communism fell in chesco fell in. And actually, it did remind me when I've traveled in Myanmar, the country reminded me a bit of my country after, after the detention, dictators, dictatorship, when it tried to do this transition to democracy. And because it was a kind of, it's very hard to pinpoint exactly what but had this kind of same energy, like, was changing very fast. And it was some hope. And I didn't have to spend so much time, but just this is my impression, that moment. And yeah, things were beginning to change for the better that time. But now, it's very hard to keep a democracy. I mean, after so many decades of, of dictatorship, and in my country, as well, I mean, it's had maybe 20 years to really become democratic and free and was peer to now not so bad, like it's happening now in Myanmar, but we had some periods in the 90s, where now things are degrading again. And those protests that were crushed, not with Army, but with miners was called the mineral yards, you know, the they called the mini manipulators, some workers to crush the protests. And yeah, it's difficult to, to build because it's not just about institutions. So and, I mean, the the right to vote is also like a culture, and that everyone kind of has respect the freedom of others and freedom of speech. And I mean, it's, it's a habit that everyone kind of gradually begins to incorporate. And it's easy to lose that, I guess, if also, if the current context is not good, like international, and they're not supported by other countries. Yeah, I hope it's, I mean, things will turn for the better for Myanmar. But it's very hard.
Host 33:35
Right, you know, one of the features of an opening country that was true of Romania, true of Myanmar during the transition, is you suddenly have access. And this is especially true in the modern age, you suddenly have access to new opportunities, information styles, influences that you simply didn't have when the country was closed. And, you know, certainly, we saw that in the transition period, I have a very good friend from Czech Republic. And he came of age, just as Czech was coming out of their dark years. And it was so and my friend, as he was coming of age 2021 or so at the time, he immediately took off to you know, India, and Nepal and Africa and all these different places. And it was so interesting, visiting with him around that time and seeing or not around that time, but some years later, and just kind of seen the older generations that just had no understanding or access to this outside world and this younger guy who was just drinking it up and then as I got to know him in later years, seeing what that influence did to him, you know, going to these different parts of the world what he brought back with them and how it changed his worldview. And in the case of Romania, of course, these opportunities also came during that time you you mentioned, your your age, and so you would have been, you would have probably some memory of those new experiences and things starting to come and among with that would have Then Buddhism would have been the opportunity to learn Buddhist meditation to read Buddhist books to attend Buddhist retreats. And so talk a bit about the presence of Buddhism coming to Romania in the context of Romania itself coming out of a dark period and where you fit in with finding an interest in Buddhist teachers and teachings and retreats.
Dragos Badita 35:23
So, for the first part, I remember when I traveled for the first time abroad, my country, maybe I had to I was like, 14 years old, something like that. And actually, it was really striking for me, because I think you don't realize that when you live in a country that there is some collective trauma, you know, for, for all, almost all population that leaves after in such a long period of dictatorship. And when I went abroad, I really, really realized that no, I felt that people are different, you know, more kind of relaxed more, you know, trusting, maybe more kind of knowing. Yeah, knowing that they're respected and knowing that they can trust this, maybe it's designed to understate. But in Romania, it's not, I mean, it's the little details that can remain in it for people that you see like people are when they have to stay in line, somewhere to wait a bus, they're kind of fretting, and they're all going together, like they because they're afraid of losing losing their place. Just small things like that, if you feel that something behind this deeper than Yeah, and things, of course, this changed. But for all other generation, I think it's still a bit there at this moment of memory of, of the periods of dictatorship. And when they did couldn't really trust each other so much, because there was the secret service that was we didn't know who could be in the circumcision service, to follow them and so on. And yeah, and also the poverty, the lack of opportunity. And for Buddhism, it was, yeah, I consider myself very lucky to have this opportunity to, for me, it was connected a lot with the appearance of internet and I kind of started meditating after following. A monk, Canadian monk called Utada. Mobic, who maybe heard of him is quite a popular or has a channel on YouTube. And here is a tradition of Maha seaside. And it's the first time I really consider that it's a possibility to do this, you know, I read about Buddhism before, but it felt a bit theoretical, it was, like, more philosophical, which I was very attracted to, but I didn't know that I can do it, you know? Yeah, it's like still possible to cultivate this and to do it, like in real life? And then, yeah, pretty know about different teachers and to read books, you can order books online and read about pretty much everything you want, and attend retreat and travel. And I mean, it's, it's amazing in his respects, and, yeah, I mean, internet, the internet has its flaws, and, but it's also a great opportunity, if you can, you can use it well.
Host 38:39
And so then, having come from this background of being interested in Buddhism, and getting deeper and deeper into Buddhist theory and teachings, and especially the practice in the meditation, coming to Southeast Asia and coming to Myanmar, particularly, what were your experiences, like, in, in going through with the meditation here in this more native environment with much deeper roots? Yeah,
Dragos Badita 39:02
it was, I mean, it was really intense period in I mean, all of the retreats were but this one is even more because it was a bit longer. It was the longest I did. I did 10 weeks only before, then we extend that they sorry. And yeah, and also the practice of just concentration. Most of it, I was trying to focus on the breath, the sensation of breath at the tip of the nose. This was the first teaching and and you know, I kind of came a bit naive like it with maybe too much expectations, you know, to really learn the first jhana that was my goal. And, but even even so, I mean, even if you don't try to do insight meditation, it really comes naturally after a while and you start realizing lots of things about yourself and The nature of experience maybe and, and yeah the reason why this monastery is really special to it's interesting that compared to a normal retreat you're not so taking taken care of like you're a bit on your own you have to have your own practice you know, the problem with the monastery is but you're not like a student special student to that you know, the teacher is there for you all the time and you have to just follow the programming of the monastery and try to learn more on yourself to to get over the difficulties by yourself most of the time and there are some really interesting things so the 10 sticks stick to me one of them is really the the wait things that are happening in common like the meal time, it always the way everyone stood in line and just waited for for the meal and people people came from the villages around almost everyday like villagers that probably most of them are quite poor, I guess. And they offer us which were like for meditators everyday like food and sometimes flowers even and was quite touching you know, to see people happy to help like this practice like to support our practice, even if we're not related in any way. And I remember was this kind of old very old lady was very frail and she was coming home very often then she just just came with condiments, you know, like curry and just put some condiments in our food it's very very nice yeah, and then just a whole lot of material the sound in the morning of the wood that was the call for meditation the I know how is called the instrument isn't it was not a bell. Gong Gong Yeah.
Host 42:19
Yeah, walk a hollowed out piece of wood that everyday.
Dragos Badita 42:21
Exactly, but because the monastery was you know, kind of mountain region and it was yeah, the echo really went so far it was like well
Host 42:32
yeah, they even have a certain rhythm of of how frequent they they bang it and it gets it gets more and more frequent and then suddenly they're banging it really hard and then they start to have greater intervals again and protocol that happens any monastery in the country like that. Yeah,
Dragos Badita 42:47
it was quite musical in a way Yeah. Yeah, and the meditation hall and everyone in the evening they did some chanting the idea of course I did not understand it but the atmosphere was very very nice because it was very dark you know? It was like you could feel the whole story began you could feel voices everywhere like this kind of dark space there are many many no you cannot kind of because you're in that state that meditative state and everything is much more intense every sensation every every sound every everything is because very interesting. Even the little detail is really and I mean but the meditation practice is quite can be quite challenging difficult in the beginning was really difficult the first week for me, but then it it went more with the flow and better and better and there were some strange experiences that I didn't have before with meditation, but I didn't realize my goal of entering the first channel it but I was not like it's okay
Host 44:14
so you know, have done various meditations associated with John Shaw said it would teach in the pot oak system Aussie say it, perhaps some others as well. Where Where does your practice fit in now? What have you gravitated towards and what what works for you in terms of how you want to practice? Well,
Dragos Badita 44:31
it depends on the I mean, in retreats, I usually follow the teachings of the retreat, but in normal life, I have a regular meditation practice. I try maybe now in the last year was not so intense, maybe half half an hour a day. But and I also like, like a lot kind of open awareness. Let's see to just do Let the awareness sit on every everything that to be open to everything that happens in your experience. And just let it be, and not not try to guide it so much. But sometimes I want to do breath, focus on focus on breathing, and kind of collected the attention more. So it depends, I mean depends on maybe the mood, maybe how I think is useful that point to maybe take 10 minutes, some, just from time to time, like every two hours and just just sit 10 minutes, it is really useful for me, this kind of reminding, reminding myself, that it's kind of the whole day has to be freed awareness, not to just sit practice.
Host 45:52
And one of the things that some meditators will say when they come to Burma is that they, they benefit not just from the prescribed teachings and the courses and the technique, but they benefit in ways they never would have imagined from the outside the the external society and just being in a Buddhist community and the way that viewing interactions in the monastery or outside the monastery between people or various influences were there in your time that you spent in Myanmar in monastic environments, as well as outside and traveling and meeting people were there certain aspects or facets of Burmese culture that stood out to you and that influenced you beyond the mere practice of a technique?
Dragos Badita 46:32
So I think one of the things is just the seriousness you know, the seriousness that the meditation practice and spiritual practice in general is his view is viewed with I mean, then this is has some impact on your psychological if if you know that you feel that everyone is respecting these things, it's very important. This I mean, this don't have in my country for example, is is something maybe a bit strange or maybe just kind of relaxation method, but he's not viewed so with such such intensity. And yeah, the rhythm I guess, like the life is way follows kind of you see monks in the morning with it reminds you you know, it reminds you that this exists, you know, and it's happening and you know, it has some weight weight to it, like you know, that a lot of time has passed from when the Buddha gave the teachings and this is still here in this habit for example with the monks without the Jamboree in the morning is still happening after all this time. And yeah, there are many things like this and also the art i mean i because I'm an artist I really sensitive to art and kind of the way your art kind of encouraged you encouraged you to have some experiences or do something some things to yeah suggest something you know and with this art suggest some specific things like do pagodas have some you know how this shape of like a cylinder and then like a spiral had any has some I know elation, it kind of is he's it's difficult to explain exactly what but it's, it resonates with with me. And we had the serenity of the sculptures of the Buddha, maybe the whole atmosphere in the temples liked a lot also in Thailand, the the interior of the temples was really cozy like with carpet, and it was really kind of very natural to just sit and meditate in the temple, which was not something go very, you know, formal or you know, I mean, in my country, you know, the churches has some more. I don't know how to say more seriousness, I mean, kind of something more heavy sometimes, you know, like, has to be really Yeah, it's not so inviting, maybe sometimes. Yeah, there are many things like that, I think.
Host 49:50
Yeah, speaking of Thailand, one of the sketches in your collection that really stood out from all the other scenes that you were collecting was The image that you drew to the Red Light District in Bangkok, can you describe? Can you describe to the audience what that picture is that what that sketches and the obvious emotions and body language is that you're depicting on the girls? And what drew you to, to kind of go outside? Or at least the way I see it go outside a bit of the norms of the things that you were drawing? And this seems like something of an outlier? What led you to want to sketch this and include that in the collection? Yeah,
Dragos Badita 50:29
I mean, in especially in Thailand, I did a lot of drawing is also kind of daily life. And that is kind of part of part of it. Part of the it's part of the truths of that what is happening, right. Yeah, part of what? Yeah, and yeah, maybe do a due to the very kind of sad and the girls in on the street, like, lined up. And now it's maybe more subjective isn't like, they really look like that, necessarily. But yeah, it's. Yeah, as part of life. Yeah, this is not I was not judgmental, or something like that. But yeah, it's part of
Host 51:27
the city, they look very scared and vulnerable and, and protecting themselves. And it was, it was quite striking in terms of the just the, at least for me, the the emotions that I saw that that captured that, and you're right, it is part of life. And especially in Thailand, for those who haven't been in that part of the world. It's, it's not like as in Western countries, that you, you go to a certain street in a certain part of town, that there's only one reason why you would go there, and you're going there for this fix of, you know, some combination of girls or drugs or crime or whatever else. In Thailand, you you have this these kind of red light parts of life, just just right downtown and on the same streets as anything else. And so it's just to give that context for those that haven't been there. As you're walking from here to there, you very easily might pass by some types of these establishments.
Dragos Badita 52:23
Yeah, I mean, I never seen in Europe, something that is like, maybe Nazism, but not even there, you know, the entire streets that all of them would say, in bars, and we made many girls outside dressed almost naked. Yeah.
Host 52:48
Right, there certainly is a wide and diverse collection of your sketches, both from Myanmar, from Southeast Asian countries and elsewhere, showing these kinds of daily rhythms and familiarities of, of life being in those places, of course, for you not so familiar if you're, if you're an outsider, and there's something new, but really kind of capturing the daily essence of life and the things that are outside of the normal framing of pictures in places. So for those that are interested in seeing more about your work and following you, where can they do so?
Dragos Badita 53:23
Well, I have Instagram is Instagram page, and is drug wash, but it's up that studio now. So have a website with my name, Josh buddies.com. I guess those are the best places to see.
Host 53:39
Yeah, and we'll link those in the show notes as well when they come out. And definitely encourage listeners to follow along and see some of that and thank you so much for taking the time to join us and have a wide ranging conversation.
Dragos Badita 53:51
Thanks a lot for inviting me and yeah, I hope things will be better future for the country. Yeah, I hope so.
Host 54:11
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